In this video - Ayn Rand is criticized for “her promotion of greed, unfettered self-interest, and her rejection of faith in God.”

Ayn Rand did not advocate FORCE. Hence, her atheism, like private faith, is no one’s business. Those promoting faith in God should not equivocate between theocracy and religious freedom: do you aim to use force, i.e. government, to ram down your religion-based values?

Ayn Rand used reason and persuasion to advance INALIENABLE rights, the principle which sanctions unfettered self-interest. In freedom, the greed to pursue one’s own interests is limited only by the equal rights of others. Many have surrendered inalienable rights and have sanctioned the use of force. Consequently, the US has a mixed economy, not a free market.

Theocracy and collectivism employ FORCE. Capitalism employs reason and persuasion. Neither the rich nor the selfish have the power to coerce. Only the government has the power to use force. When the government enters the realm of production and trade, of science, of religion, or of education: it dishonors its noble mandate to secure rights – it becomes a tyrant because it uses force against innocents.

The enemies of freedom decry the greed of creators in generating wealth and jobs. Yet these destroyers celebrate the greed for coercive power and the greed for the unearned.

John Mackey of Whole Foods, a critic of Obamacare, says in this article, “I was very inspired by Ayn Rand’s novels… However, … I don’t think selfishness is a virtue and I don’t believe that business primarily exists to make a profit… Renee and I didn’t begin Whole Foods Market to maximize profits for our shareholders. We began it for three main reasons: we thought it would be fun to create a business; we needed to earn a living; and we wanted to contribute to the well-being of other people....”

Mr. Mackey evades that having fun and earning a living are selfish. As to “contributing to the well-being of other people” – he must mean charity, not trade. Mr. Mackey advocates that the primary purpose of a business is to serve moochers. Self-respecting individuals would reject Mr. Mackey’s charity. Howard Roarks would tell him, “Hands off!” John Galts would say, “Do not live for my sake.”

Some say Mr. Mackey is a Libertarian. Libertarians claim they are for freedom and that they reject government because it is force. They evade that without the proper function of government, unfettered force would reign and might would trump rights.

From Royal Serf:

To value is a function of the self – it is selfish to care for loved ones; their well-being or happiness is not divorced from the valuer’s. That good people live and prosper is in one’s own self-interest. One benefits from the advantages of social existence: exchange of knowledge, trade, division of labor, and defense from force. One wants to live in freedom and in peace – therefore, to cherish a society that respects individual rights is selfish.

The virtue involved in caring for loved ones and doing the right thing is integrity: you love, so you care; you think it is right, so you do it.

Individualists do not need sacrificial lambs. Men with self-esteem, i.e. selfish men, take pride in independence. One cannot achieve happiness without self-esteem. Without self-respect, life is not worth living. This explains why men of integrity do the right thing no matter the cost. No matter how difficult, they cannot do otherwise - they cannot sacrifice their sacred honor. Doing the right thing is not sacrifice – it is upholding the precious, not renouncing nor destroying it.

Friday, December 18, 2009

The right to the pursuit of happiness is “acerbic”, says a Libertarian, i.e. Anarchist, and fellow Libertarian John Stossel writes about it. I translated what was said, formulated as follows: Rand’s “Virtue of Selfishness” is acerbic.

The principle of inalienable rights is “dogmatic”, says Mr. Stossel – he said it this way: Rand is dogmatic.

Ayn Rand is in glorious company – Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson also held rights as absolute.

It is elitist to admire the Founders and the Thomas Edisons, say Libertarians. Their words: Rand “… is … elitist, cold and laser-focused on the supermen and superwomen of the world.”

The Founders and the Thomas Edisons EARNED the veneration of Ayn Rand and her kind. Justice demands that the virtuous be extolled.

Pander to moochers in order to sell capitalism, say Libertarians. The defense of self-interest and rights is not good for TV ratings, they claim. They are like the publishers who rejected The Fountainhead, believing no audience existed for it.

Ayn Rand appeals to thinkers, to individuals who respect themselves, to freedom fighters. The endurance of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged is proof that they exist in great numbers.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

The Facebook group “Objectivist Ethics and Virtues” does not mention Objectivist Ethics: SELF-INTEREST. The group claims that Objectivist ethics is the only rational code of ethics, evading – contrary to the virtues of rationality and honesty – the Declaration of Independence: the pursuit of one’s own happiness.

“… Learn the morality implied in the Declaration of Independence, a document that today isn’t quoted enough nor sufficiently understood. The Objectivist ethics is merely the philosophically-worked-out proof of what the Founding Fathers implied in the Declaration. …” -- Ayn Rand Answers pg. 47: "What political steps should be taken to achieve your goals?"

This group states, “Objectivism stands opposed to religious ethics…”

The ethics of an INDIVIDUALIST, a moral descendant of the Founders, is self-interest. One need not be an atheist to be an individualist, to achieve glorious feats:

"The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully—and two hundred years have not been enough for other countries to understand it. But this is the concept to which we owe our lives—the concept which made it possible for us to bring into reality everything of value that any of us did or will achieve or experience." -- Ayn Rand

A proper philosophy is integrated. An honest man does not drop context. Yet, this group does not mention the ultimate goal of Objectivism: capitalism, the only social system concordant with individual rights.

One need not be an atheist to fight for rights and capitalism.

As to private faith:

“The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper relationship is — Hands off!” -- Howard Roark, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

I thank Ayn Rand and other Objectivist intellectuals for their virtues and precious gifts [e.g. their books]. They make it much easier for me to understand, and to form convictions.

Objectivist intellectuals and rational businessmen are heroes.

The book is not just for businessmen. It is also for thinkers who want to understand business and the government’s policies toward businessmen, like the jailing of businessmen, insider trading, antitrust laws, etc. It is for decent men, who wish mankind happiness, who impose on no one, who want to check if they hold false premises and could unwittingly hurt themselves, their loved ones, their heroes, or other good people.

I bought the book on July 4, 2006 at the Ayn Rand Bookstore of the 2006 Objectivist Conference [OCON] in Boston. The book was autographed by Dr. Edwin Locke. After attending OCON 2006, I started writing REASON REIGNS.

I have a simple common-sense philosophy when it comes to things that I do not yet fully understand: I ask myself, “Does this violate anyone’s rights?” If yes, I deem it to be bad. If not, I further ask, “Would it make me happy, or could it make someone happy?” If yes – then it’s good. Objectivism helps me understand.

I am against taxation. Slaves, not free men, are taxed. I am for equal inalienable rights, most specially free speech. Everyone should be free to speak out, to advance their convictions using reason and persuasion. If theocracy warriors use freedom of speech to advocate theocracy - it should be combated with opposing speech.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

St. Thomas Aquinas and the Founders are the proof that reason and faith can coexist, parallel to each other, in the same man. Like them, their moral descendants revere reason, freedom, and happiness.

Thomas Aquinas, the man who ended the Middle Ages and ushered in the Renaissance, said reason does not rest on faith but is a self-contained, natural faculty which works on sense experience. Echoing Aristotle, he said that the essential task of reason is to gain knowledge of this world. Thomas Aquinas declared that men must use and obey reason because whatever one can prove by reason and logic is true. He held that faith is valuable as a supplement to reason.

Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, enjoined, “Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”

The standard of good is exalted in the Declaration of Independence:man’s life! A Declaration worshipper, Ayn Rand held that man’s life is the standardof value – and his own life is the ethical purposeof every individual man.

Ayn Rand created Objectivism which advocates capitalism as the consequence and the ultimate practical application of its fundamental philosophical principles.

Objectivity is both a metaphysical and an epistemological concept pertaining to the relationship of consciousness to existence. Metaphysically, it is the recognition of the fact that reality exists independent of any perceiver’s consciousness. Epistemologically, it is the recognition of the fact that a man’s consciousness must acquire knowledge of reality by means of reason in accordance with logic.

Objectivity holds that in matters pertaining to human knowledge, metaphysically - reality is the only authority; epistemologically – one’s own intellect. “Reality is the ultimate arbiter of the mind”, says Objectivism. In all aspects of human existence, man achieves his values only by making his decisions consonant with the facts of reality.

Ayn Rand was an atheist. She greatly admired Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, and the other Founders, noble advocates of reason who believed in God. What do I call one who reveres Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, and Ayn Rand? An Objectivist-Thomist.

An Objectivist-Thomist fights theocracy warriors and the concept of a cruel, unjust, sadistic god.

Thomists, Jeffersonians, individualists, and other freedom fighters: this is the creator of Objectivism in essentials:

“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” -- Ayn Rand

“The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper relationship is — Hands off!” -- Howard Roark, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

"I swear, by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." -- John Galt, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

"If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence… the greatest document in human history, both philosophically and literarily." -- Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was hostile to theocracy warriors but never to private faith.

From Ayn Rand Answers, pages 62-63:

"We should keep religion out of politics for the same reasons the Founding Fathers gave. Religion is a private matter... With the American separation of church and state, all religions could live together peacefully, because each man is free to hold his own beliefs but cannot force them on others.

Persuasion, reason, argument are not the province of religion. Religion rests on faith - on an acceptance of certain beliefs apart from reason. THIS IS WHY IT MUST BE PRIVATE. WHEN IT'S A PRIVATE MATTER, IT'S FINE - IT CAN EVEN BE A KIND OF INSPIRATION TO PEOPLE. Faith is what each man may choose for himself, if he wishes. I don't."

THERE ARE RATIONAL RELIGIOUS PEOPLE. In fact, I was pleased and astonished to discover that some religious people support Objectivism. If you want to be a full Objectivist, you cannot reconcile that with religion; BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN RELIGIOUS PEOPLE CANNOT BE INDIVIDUALISTS AND FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. THEY CAN, AND THIS COUNTRY IS THE BEST PROOF OF IT....

In America, you would not find it difficult to divorce religion from altruism. After all, Christ said - "Love your neighbor as yourself." So you must love yourself. After that, you can argue about your neighbors."

One’s soul is one’s private domain. Where one’s private domain is concerned, the Declaration of Independence and Objectivism both declare: Hands off!

Reason and faith can coexist, parallel to each other, in the privacy of one’s soul.

“Reason is the faculty that deals with the perception of reality, while faith is the claim to a non-sensory means of knowledge. Principles and values derived from faith are often accepted without question even in the face of contrary evidence, while reason deals with facts and employs the method of non-contradictory identification.

Faith has been used to further ignorance, enshrine irrationality, and exploit people. With faith, there is no necessity for justification. Force is its corollary.

But if one's personal faith holds reason as its top value, then, faith and reason are not incompatible. If one's personal faith holds the life, freedom, and happiness of each human being as the most sacred of values, then, reason and faith can coexist, parallel to each other, in the same man.

This man uses reason for everything that can be explained, while his faith holds on to dreams that inspire him to live.

Faith in a God who is all-good and all-loving, who treasures each man, endowing him with a mind capable of understanding man's nature, the Earth, and the universe.

Faith in a God who so loves man that He respects his freedom of choice.

Faith that God shares the most sacrosanct of values: each man's life, his freedom, and his happiness here on Earth. Faith that Heaven and Earth are one and the same.

Faith that human life goes on until eternity, that everything is possible to man. Faith in miracles -

Think of a miracle. Believe that God has given the means to achieve it. Think, and find out the facts. Think, with the clarity of purpose. Let the vision of a miracle be a beacon to guide your actions. Think, and then act. Act with the confidence that miracles do happen to doers who strive to actualize them.

Rejoice! Angels do exist in our midst, though it takes the highest of virtues to recognize them.

Heaven on Earth can be achieved when reason reigns.”

Alisa gazed at Ron adoringly. “A good man,” she thought. “His mind matches his looks.” Ron was six feet and three inches tall. He was proud and joyously confident.

Ron continued, “I respect the freedom of each man to celebrate the holy month, but I do not hold humility as a virtue. I think self-sacrifice is evil, suffering has no value, and one’s own happiness is the purpose of life.”

Monday, November 23, 2009

Mark Wickens posted this article on Facebook with this comment: “Daniel Hannan invents a passage from Atlas Shrugged to "prove" that it's absurd. With fans like these…”

Daniel Hannan is no fan of Ayn Rand - he seeks to destroy greatness. That he fabricates in order to tear down makes him subhuman.

Mr. Hannan says: "Rand was a visionary, and her critique of the corporatist order was eerily apt... her analysis of the business-political order—the monopolistic instincts of industrialists..."

He is either mindless or an Ellsworth Toohey. No mind could miss what Ayn Rand portrayed: government's coercive power -- its monopoly -- used to prop up men who greed for the unearned. Mr. Hannan evades that industrialists have no power to use force. He evades the distinction between Hank Rearden and Jim Taggart. He must be so envious of Reardens -- he doesn't want them freed and glorified -- that he dissuades readers from being exposed to Ayn Rand’s ideas.

The American Conservative helps Ayn Rand destroyers lest readers discover Requiem for Man, Ayn Rand’s response to the papal encyclical Populorum Progressio which declares that capitalism is worse than Marxism and that the only morality is altruism (self-sacrifice). She wrote, "If need -- global need -- is the criterion of morality, if minimum subsistence (the standard of living of the least developed savages) is the criterion of property rights, then every new shirt or dress, every ice cream cone, every automobile, refrigerator or television set becomes 'superfluous wealth.'"

Pope Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate (2009) echoes Populorum Progressio. Both encyclicals blame the PROFIT motive for all the world’s problems, and call for a worldwide REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH by a world government as the solution.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Conservatives nominate Governor Sarah Palin to the Office first held by George Washington. It has become a no-brainer that theocracy warriors want a puppet in the White House. They were disappointed in George W. Bush – he did not advance theocracy enough – so they pick a weak mind over the gravitas of VP Dick Cheney or the wealth-creating prowess and moral certainty of Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Mayor Bloomberg has shown rectitude in opposing major voting blocs: the NRA, Conservatives, and moochers. He is firmly on the side of Reason and Rights, an integral part of which is the Declaration’s mandate to secure Rights. Thomas Jefferson’s words describe him: “One man with courage is a majority.”

If the only 2012 White House contenders are a US-bashing, lying looter and a puppet of Dark Ages tyrants: Americans will have effectively flung the legacy of the Founders in a burning garbage pit.

America: be reminded of thee Uncommon Heroes you are rejecting in favor of one who hates America and one who would impose faith on America –

Declaration of Independence Signer Abraham Clark from New Jersey and his two sons who were officers in the Continental Army:

Mr. Clark’s sons were captured and tortured. The British offered Mr. Clark his two sons’ release if he would renounce his signature on the Declaration of Independence. He refused.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

More government intervention into the financial industry will neutron bomb jobs and will deepen the recession. House Financial Services Committee: Be a George Washington, not a King George III.

The Founders fought a king and his mighty empire that all individuals be free from coercion by other men and by the government. When asked to do good by force – to be king of the USA – George Washington responded: “Abhorrent!” He upheld individual rights. He rejected power. Power-lust is for little men.

When asked, “Please think for us”- George Washington responded: “Abhorrent!” When implored, “Please decree what’s good for us” – he took offense: “Abhorrent!”

The man described by an incredulous King George III as “the greatest man in the world” proclaimed that it is abhorrent for a government to babysit its citizens.

The principle of equal rights mandates that the owners of big private companies be accorded the same rights granted to accused terrorists: innocent – thus, no punishment – until proven guilty under due process. The principle of inalienable rights mandates that all individuals, including the investors of big private financial companies, be the bosses of themselves, and not bossed around by the government.

Justice demands that the customers and investors of a private company decide its fate – that the rights of customers and businessmen are inviolable. The only way to promote the general welfare is to respect equal inherent inalienable rights. Otherwise, the US becomes a slave pen ruled by King George IIIs.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Mayor Michael Bloomberg does respect the right to bear arms. He is equally passionate about doing a good job at the government’s ONLY mandate: “to secure… rights…”

Mayor Bloomberg understands that the ONLY right delegated to the government is the right to self-defense.

To remove the use of force from citizen interactions so that individuals may deal with each other only by reason and persuasion, citizens delegate their right to self-defense to their government. – Royal Serf

When there is no time to call the police, using force to defend oneself is moral and legal.

Outlawing shouting “fire!” in a place like a theater is self-defense, not speech-infringement, because the prohibited action could instantaneously cause deaths and injuries – there is no time to counter the “speech”.

A shooter could kill and maim at the blink of an eye. Background check of gun buyers, which Mayor Bloomberg advocates for, is self-defense, not Second Amendment infringement, since it does not prevent rights-respecting citizens from buying guns.

To oppose laws purposed to prevent instantaneous deaths and that do allow the purchase of arms by rights-respecters is to reject the "to secure rights" mandate of the government. It is anarchism.

Fundamentally, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a realist, a rights-respecter, and a man of integrity: he wants freedom and he is acting to defend it. It is great that a thinker and man of action, a Prime Mover who has created great wealth, is standing up for Reason and Rights.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Americans would dishonor the Founders and would deserve tyranny - if, in 2012, no respecter of rights challenges the Republican Party which has succumbed to theocracy warriors – if no American of mettle challenges President Obama, a USA basher chummy with dictators.

I hope Mayor Michael Bloomberg will run in 2012 for the office of the President of the USA.

Mayor Bloomberg supports abortion rights, stating: "Reproductive choice is a fundamental human right and we can never take it for granted. On this issue, you're either with us or against us." He has criticized pro-choice politicians who support pro-life candidates.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Yet, it has no commentary-show host advocating no contradictions to the Declaration of Independence – no contradictions to equal inherent inalienable rights.

Yet, it has handed huge trumpets to the moral descendants of “the sun revolves around the Earth” tyrants, but none to one who does not evade reality: the pregnant woman is alive while the zygote, which has no brain activity, is not.

Glenn Beck is a self-proclaimed Libertarian who blatantly sponsored a political candidate in the 2009 elections. A Libertarian is pro-anarchism – Mr. Beck is an advocate of two phenomena forbidden by the Constitution: anarchism and a religious political party: the Conservative Party.

Sean Hannity repetitively makes the Conservative Declaration: “I am not a Republican, I am a Conservative.” Governor Mike Huckabee, also a moral descendant of “the sun revolves around the Earth” tyrants, is a favorite of Conservatives. Governor Huckabee could become the next President of the USA.

Who is the fair and balanced opposite of Mr. Beck, Mr. Hannity, and Governor Huckabee? A commentary-show host who reveres the Declaration of Independence –

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — …

A Fox News Channel commentary-show host who advocates, not for anarchism, but for a government whose ONLY function is to secure rights, i.e. rights to action.

“A right is that which can be exercised without anyone’s permission.” – Ayn Rand

A Fox News Channel commentary-show host who advocates, not for a faith-based government, i.e. a theocracy, but for a government deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed - just powers based on inherent inalienable rights, meaning: not subject to a public vote.

Thomas Jefferson said: “Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments.” To remove the use of force from citizen interactions so that individuals may deal with each other only by reason and persuasion, citizens delegate their right to self-defense to their government. Citizens cannot delegate a right they do not possess – hence, the government has no right to regulate inherent inalienable Rights, including the rights of individuals who hold that selfishness is a virtue.

- Royal Serf

Bill O’Reilly advocates economic regulations. He endorses shackles and leashes for some businessmen, e.g. oil executives. To Mr. O’Reilly, the principle of inalienable rights and the presumption of innocence doctrine do not apply to businessmen and to abortion providers. He champions rights infringement – he advocates slavery so long as he is not the slave.

Please rise to be recognized: FNC commentary-show hosts who advocate the mandates of the principle of equal inherent inalienable rights:

Separation of church and state

Separation of state and economics

Separation of state and science

Separation of state and education

Separation of state and art

Please rise to be recognized: FNC commentary-show hosts who expose the fact that President Ronald Reagan, also a moral descendant of “the sun revolves around the Earth” tyrants, vigorously implemented evil laws: Antitrust and Insider Trading.

FNC’s credibility is at stake. If theocracy sentiment sells, would you resort to evasion and profit from it? If the powerful, the popular, and the polls are on the side of unreason, would you risk investment or livelihood to stand up for rationality?

To honor its fair and balanced motto, to stand for truth and integrity, FNC must also give voice to Jeffersonians or Objectivists: individualists who hold no contradictions to this devotion expressed by Ayn Rand: "If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence... the GREATEST DOCUMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY, both philosophically and literarily."

Fox News Channel: join the fight of Thomas Jefferson – “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.”

Thursday, November 12, 2009

“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.” The words of a man of towering character: George Washington.

The truth is what conforms to reality. Objectivism holds that in all aspects of human existence, man achieves his values only by making his decisions consonant with the facts of reality. (More here)

Ayn Rand said: “Definitions are the guardians of rationality, the first line of defense against the chaos of mental disintegration… A concept or mental integration is not arbitrary; it has a basis in reality… Definitions are determined by the facts of reality within the context of one’s knowledge.”

Destroyers insidiously attack definitions.

It is an old trick, devised by the champion of altruism - Immanuel Kant’s “noumenal” world is unknowable; it is the world of “real” reality, “superior” truth and “things in themselves” or “things as they are” — which Ayn Rand described as: things as they are not perceived by man.

Kant originated the technique required to sell irrational notions… your conclusion must be brazenly clear, but your proof unintelligible. Your proof must be so tangled a mess that it will paralyze a reader’s critical faculty — a mess of evasions, equivocations, obfuscations, circumlocutions, non sequiturs… — all of it resting on a zero: the absence of definitions…

- Philosophy: Who Needs It, 116

Unable to rule nor influence individuals who accept no guilt in their desire to live and pursue happiness, sacrifice-profiteers destroy the concept of one’s concern for oneself, i.e. selfishness, by declaring it synonymous with callousness and malevolence.

Champions of slavery invoked Liberty:

“We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor.

Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny."

When nature clobbers global warming, Al Gore changes its name to climate change.

Rights are rights to action. Individuals have equal rights. Collectivists invalidate Rights by trumpeting rights to man-made values (e.g. right to healthcare), and by advocating special rights for a particular class of citizens (e.g. feminist rights, affirmative action).

Tyrants flourish by labeling coercion: freedom – e.g. free competition must be enforced! Coercion masquerading as liberty has annihilated rights and freedom. The spectacularly successful are rightless – evidence: the Antitrust law. Undefined, elastic laws are used to jail or dragoon job creators – proof: unfair use in Insider Trading. Regulations void the presumption of innocence doctrine, e.g. “The White House and the US Congress must make businessmen and doctors honest.”

Theocracy masquerading as liberty is surging.

The destruction trick is also employed by the anti-choice movement, describing itself as pro-life. It negates life and justice by using the term murder in relation to that with no brain activity, i.e. a thing not alive, e.g. a zygote. One who blanks out the life of the pregnant and who champions destroying the life of an actual human being – is certainly not pro-life. One who advocates force – advocates forcing a human being to go through a lifetime paying for a mistake – does not cherish the sanctity of life. One who imposes a tortured life on another is a monster.

When called upon to do good by force – to be King of the United States – George Washington took offense, calling it “abhorrent!”

Those who live by the facts of reality accept these truths: man has free will, and individuals have equal, inherent, inalienable rights. Those who go by the truth advance their moral values by using reason and persuasion. Never by force.

A purveyor of truth is on the side of reason and rights. Like Thomas Jefferson, he avows, “I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The White House says (link): “... lobbyists for major special interests have wielded extraordinary power in Washington DC…”

From Royal Serf:

“Lobbying?” - - - - - “Courting crooks.”

A corrupt government has favors to sell. Unwilling to relinquish this goldmine, it cannot grasp that what rights-respecting producers and consumers do is none of the government’s business, that the rights-respecting market must be absolutely free for the economy to survive.

Freedom categorically ends lobbying and favor-seeking because it ends the politicians’ power to offer extorted property and their own souls for sale in the name of the poor and the middle class and in the interest of the public. Serfdom is not in the interest of rights-respecting people.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Is winning so dear, or power so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of evasion-chains and mixed-premises-slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I reject socialism and theocracy!

Give me objectivity, give me integrity, give me liberty!

The Founders were deists. They were men of faith who showed fidelity to reality: freedom cannot coexist with faith-based law and government.

Republicans –

Honor the separation of church and state - every individual must be free to have private faith or no faith. Prevent the moral descendants of “the sun revolves around the Earth” tyrants from wielding coercive power to impose their moral values.

Honor the principle of individual rights. For the same reason that it mandates the separation of church and state, it also mandates the separation of state and economics, the separation of state and science, the separation of state and education, the separation of state and art. The Declaration of Independence is clear: the only purpose of law and of government is “… to secure these rights…”

If the GOP falls to the theocracy warriors: the party’s 2012 presidential nominee will be Governor Sarah Palin.

If the party sticks to its big-tent policy – devoid of principles, honesty, courage, and integrity - the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee will be Governor Mike Huckabee. I predicted this in Royal Serf.

A political party of freedom defenders must boot out theocracy warriors as well as regulation dictators. Otherwise, it is a big tent of dishonesty.

Sons and daughters of Liberty: rise and mutually pledge to each other your lives, your fortunes, and your sacred honor - that the nation conceived in Reason and Liberty shall not perish from the Earth.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

NY-23rd, held by the GOP since the Civil War, rejected the theocracy warriors: Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, and other supporters of the Conservative Party, described by the author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead as “not an American political party, but a religious party – A PHENOMENON FORBIDDEN BY THE CONSTITUTION.”

The theocracy warriors chased out pro-choice, pro-gay-rights State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, chosen by local GOP leaders as their nominee.

The theocracy warriors sought to dictate.

Kudos to NY-23rd for asserting their independence! Thank you for rejecting a party backed by a powerful institution which trumpets that Capitalism is worse than Marxism and that the only morality is altruism (self-sacrifice), blaming the PROFIT motive for all the world’s problems, and calling for a worldwide REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH by a world government as the solution.

The next time you hear Mr. Hannity say, “I am not a Republican; I am a Conservative” – remember that he craves to conserve, not the Declaration of Independence, but, the Dark Ages. When the theocracy warriors speak of capitalism - remember that they mean self-sacrifice.

Never forget: the theocracy warriors quote the Founders as camouflage – remember that they spurn the freedom of choice: the right to the pursuit of one’s own happiness.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

I liked the Revolutionaries segment of the Glenn Beck Show very much; I appreciated others where Mr. Beck explained progressivism and where he had Objectivists or Jeffersonians as guests. I thought he might have mixed premises when Rudy Giuliani got deferential treatment on his show - I emailed Mr. Beck on June 7, 2009:

"The 9/12 principles-values and Rudy Giuliani are incompatibles. I hope you read up on how he tyrannized Lisa Jones, Timothy Tabor, Richard Wigton, Robert Freeman, Kidder, Peabody & Co, Princeton/Newport Partners, and the creator of 62 million jobs: Mr. Mike Milken.

Giuliani is a thug."

When NY GOP candidate for the 23rd congressional district Dede Scozzafava dropped out and the RNC announced it is backing Conservative Party candidate Mr. Doug Hoffman, I realized that THEOCRACY masquerading as freedom is surging!!!!!

Ayn Rand said in 1976 (Ayn Rand Answers page 67): “Religious conservatives want to destroy the two-party system in America by destroying the Republican Party.” On page 64: “Buckley and the conservatives advocate an organized religion very interested in politics – that is, a THEOCRACY…”

I then viewed Mr. Beck's radio and TV interviews of Mr. Hoffman, described as an Independent candidate. Mr. Beck stressed, at least twice, that the Republican candidate is pro-choice.

Why didn’t Mr. Beck inform his audience that Mr. Hoffman is the Conservative Party’s candidate? The party which Ayn Rand described as “not an American political party, but a religious party – A PHENOMENON FORBIDDEN BY THE CONSTITUTION.” She further said: “the Conservative Party… subordinates reason to faith, and substitutes theocracy for capitalism…”

Mr. Beck repeatedly said that the Republican Party candidate is endorsed by ACORN. Ayn Rand would remind him that the Conservative Party is backed by these:

These encyclicals blame the PROFIT motive for all the world’s problems, and call for a worldwide REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH by a world government as the solution.

More from Ayn Rand: Pope Paul’s Populorum Progressio declares that capitalism is worse than Marxism and that the only morality is altruism (self-sacrifice).

Men of reason: theocracy disguised as freedom is surging. Rise to defend liberty!

Heed Dr. Leonard Peikoff: “If you hate the Left so much that you feel more comfortable with the Right, you are unwittingly helping to push the U.S. toward disaster, i.e., theocracy, not in 50 years, but, frighteningly, much sooner.”

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

"Take back the Party!" says Mr. Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in New York's 23rd congressional district. John Karr posted on Goodreads Tea Party: Mr. Hoffman "has the backing of Fred Thompson, Dick Armey, and Sarah Palin. Yet Newt Gingrinch is against him and for the liberal Republican...."

I commented:

Having primary elections is consistent with the government being of, by, and for the people.

Politicians who do not abide by the results of primary elections, yet stay with their Party and continue to reap the benefits of being a member, have no honor.

I read here that Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava is pro-choice and pro-gay rights. I reckon this is why theocrats are invoking "principle over party".

Sunday, October 25, 2009

[I am an Objectivist-Thomist. I voted for Mr. Obama in 2008 because Mr. McCain is anti-capitalism (his hero is President Theodore Roosevelt), and because the Republican Party has been highjacked by theocrats. I created these topics on Goodreads Tea Party: John Allison for President 2012!! on June 20, 2009 after I joined the Facebook group with the same name, and Mark Sanford 2012 fourteen days earlier. I regularly update the latter with Facebook information which I receive as a Facebook fan of Governor Sanford.]

Governor Sanford presents and agrees with the essentials in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. He concludes, “… this is a very good time for a Rand resurgence. She's more relevant than ever.”

The Governor has mixed premises – he was blown away when he read these novels, he remains in-between loving or hating them, and has “grown more critical of Rand's outlook because it doesn't include the human needs we have for grace, love, faith, or any form of social compact.”

The article references Heller's book, and mentions Ayn’s “chief acolyte (and lover)” and her “dictatorial control over her inner circle”.

One’s private life is no one’s business. Everyone deserves privacy. Even the dead. One who disrespects privacy is no respecter of rights.

To repeat what you do not know firsthand is gossip. A decent person rejects hearsay and would judge Ayn Rand by her books, articles, public speeches, and TV appearances. Running one’s inner circle like a volunteer army is not inconsistent with reverence for individual liberty because one is free to join or stay away, and one knows the rules beforehand.

What Governor Sanford considers as “major flaw in Rand's thinking”, I consider his: “Galt … explicitly denies the existence of original sin. The idea that man is perfectible has been disproved by 10,000 years of history. Men and women are imperfect, or "fallen," …” This reveals a belief in a malevolent God. The original sin creed portrays God as unjust. To hold that man is imperfect and non-perfectible is to claim that God is a sadist. Pointing to history as proof that human beings are “fallen” is to evade the history of the United States and the Industrial Revolution.

The Governor goes on to say: “Men and women are imperfect, or ‘fallen,’ which is why I believe there is a role for limited government in making sure that my rights end where yours begin. There is a role for a limited government in thwarting man's more selfish instincts that might limit the freedoms or opportunities of others.”

Ayn Rand said that the only function of law and of government is the protection of individual rights. She revered the Founders: “If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence.”

Honesty is fidelity to the truth. The truth is what conforms to reality. Integrity is fidelity to logic. It is the refusal to hold contradictions; it is the consistent cohesion of words and deeds; it is honoring one’s mental creations by giving them physical existence.

The right to the pursuit of happiness is the right to selfishness. One not concerned with oneself has no desire to live. The concept of one’s concern for oneself, represented by the word selfishness, has been twisted to mean malevolence towards others. Those who desire to live but accept the twisted meaning of selfishness unwittingly facilitate insidious destroyers. Unable to rule nor influence individuals who accept no guilt in their desire to live and pursue happiness, destroyers demonize their core by associating callousness and malevolence with selfishness.

Is major swindler Bernard Madoff selfish or selfless? The basic selfishness criteria are self-preservation and self-reliance followed by self-love and self-respect. Bernard Madoff is not self-reliant. A dependent, he fed off his victims. Unmindful of losing his liberty, he committed massive fraud. Self-preservation is clearly absent – Madoff does not value himself. He fails even the basic selfishness test. Madoff is selfless.

Selfless means no self: no self-esteem, no self-respect, no self-love.

The sixteenth amendment, a stick-up of hard-earned wages, tramples on the Declaration of Independence and incinerates property rights. The Antitrust Law spits on logic, puffing up that free competition must be enforced! Undefined, flexible, contradictory laws are hailed. Sacrifice is the Holy Grail. Selfishness is trumpeted as having horns, a pointed tail, and a pitchfork.

Honesty demands that one’s soul be put on trial: The advocacy or sanction of coercion is the mark of evil. Integrity must be summoned to reclaim the Declaration of Independence from the clutches of sacrifice glorifiers.

Check your premises on selfishness. Self-preservation requires it.

The Republican Party shares Governor Sanford’s mixed premises and evasions. I hope his party heeds his advice: “… this is a very good time for a Rand resurgence.” Otherwise, the choice in the once Land of the Free will continue to be: toward-socialism or toward-theocracy.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Mr. O'Reilly implies that the WH irrationality is Mr. Emanuel’s doing. If this is true, then President Obama is mindless. Otherwise, he is irrational and a tyrant.

Mr. O’Reilly’s counsel to President Obama is not anchored on individual rights. Don’t attack Fox News because it is hypocritical, Mr. O’Reilly advises. President Obama shouldn’t, because it is unconstitutional. Mr. O’Reilly "would remind the president that the US military, being a vital enterprise, deserves a chance to win…." The US military has self-esteem, honoring its constitutional mandate to secure rights. Sacrificing national security and soldiers evinces the civilian leadership’s immorality.

Mr. O’Reilly counsels: drop the healthcare public option, increase insurance competition, add tort reform – because these bring down healthcare costs without taxpayer money. President Obama and Mr. O'Reilly need to be reminded of the Declaration of Independence and what its author said:

"Rightful liberty is UNOBSTRUCTED ACTION according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

As top adviser to the president, Mr. O'Reilly guarantees higher poll numbers for Mr. Obama.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

A teenager on Goodreads asks: "What is Truth?" In response, I posted the following:

The truth is what conforms to reality. Honesty is the pursuit of truth; it is the refusal to evade or fake reality.

From Royal Serf, based on Objectivism:

The metaphysically given is the standard of right or wrong. In order to succeed, an individual’s values and actions must conform to metaphysically given facts. Man cannot fly, so the Wright brothers invented the airplane; they found a way to counteract the force of gravity. Man cannot walk on water, so we build boats. Man cannot move a mountain, but we can build a tunnel through it. We can’t prevent earthquakes, so we must erect buildings that could withstand them. Man is a mortal being - doctors and pharmaceutical industries try to save and prolong lives.

The purpose of epistemology is to define a method of cognition that makes a fallible being capable of truth, a method that enables man to gain knowledge of an independent reality. Objectivity requires this method of cognition: logic.

Logic is noncontradictory identification within the full context of one’s knowledge.

Epistemology is a practical necessity – it guides man in the proper use of his conceptual faculty. Thinking, to be valid, must adhere to reality. If man’s goal is knowledge, rather than error or delusion, he must use reason.

Reason is the faculty that organizes perceptual units in conceptual terms by following the principles of logic. Reason is the existence-oriented faculty. It is the faculty of proof.

Knowledge, i.e. knowledge of reality, is contextual and hierarchical. Man’s only direct contact with reality is the data of sense – therefore, they are the standard of objectivity. Reduction is the means of connecting an advanced knowledge to reality, i.e. to the perceptually given, by retracing the essential logical structure of its hierarchical roots. Proof is a form of reduction.

Logic is the means of validating a conclusion objectively. Including the recognition of context and hierarchy, logic is the method of achieving objectivity. Only by using logic could man base his conclusions on reality.

Objectivity is both a metaphysical and an epistemological concept pertaining to the relationship of consciousness to existence. Metaphysically, it is the recognition of the fact that reality exists independent of any perceiver’s consciousness. Epistemologically, it is the recognition of the fact that a man’s consciousness must acquire knowledge of reality by means of reason in accordance with logic.

Objectivity holds that in matters pertaining to human knowledge, metaphysically - reality is the only authority; epistemologically – one’s own intellect. Reality is the ultimate arbiter of the mind. In all aspects of human existence, man achieves his values only by making his decisions consonant with the facts of reality.

Axiomatic concepts are the foundation of objectivity. Objectivism has three axioms: existence exists, consciousness, and the law of identity: Aristotle’s A is A. Axioms are perceptual self-evidencies. They are the starting points of cognition, on which all proofs depend.

A is A, and contradictions are impossible. Every entity has a specific, noncontradictory nature. It is self-evident that an entity can act only in accordance with its nature. The law of causality is the law of identity applied to action. Causality is a corollary of identity. All actions are caused by entities. The nature of an action is caused and determined by the nature of the entities that act; a thing cannot act in contradiction to its nature.

A fundamental principle to the metaphysics of Objectivism is the primacy of existence. Existence comes first. Things are what they are independent of consciousness. Consciousness is a dependent – its function is to grasp that which exists.

St. Thomas Aquinas, the man who ended the Middle Ages and ushered in the Renaissance, said reason does not rest on faith but is a self-contained, natural faculty which works on sense experience. Echoing Aristotle, he said that the essential task of reason is to gain knowledge of this world.

St. Thomas Aquinas declared that men must use and obey reason because whatever one can prove by reason and logic is true. He held that faith is valuable as a supplement to reason.

Can reason and faith coexist, parallel to each other, in the same man? This question is included in the Reason Reignstrailer.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Judge Andrew Napolitano is a staunch advocate of Jeffersonian principles. Intelligent, accomplished, and well-known, he has a good chance of being elected.

Short-term goals: defeat President Obama’s candidate and derail the assault on freedom.

Long-term goals:

A Jeffersonian governor who is well versed in the law and who has great friends in the media would be a great leader in the fight for individual rights.

As governor, Judge Napolitano could assert to the Federal Government and to the Courts that the principle of individual rights is not subject to a public vote and that capitalism is the only economic implementation of political freedom.

He could proclaim that businesses and workers should not pay any federal taxes or fees, and that the State Government would protect them from tyrannical Federal agencies and laws, like Antitrust. He could assert State Rights, and would give to the Federal government only 1/50th of the Defense Department budget.

He could fight to eliminate or phase out State laws or policies that violate Rights. He could phase out coerced welfare and State taxes.

These acts would attract businesses, entrepreneurs, and productive citizens. These would lead to prosperity-explosion in the State.

Other States, like Virginia, could follow suit, leading to a concerted effort to rein in the government.

A Tea Partier at http://www.reteaparty.com says he is an Independent, his favorite book is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and his favorite President is Ronald Reagan. He says, “I am a Tea Partier because I have a strong intrinsic commitment to individual freedom, free markets, and the constitution….”

Reaganites profess to revere individual freedom and free markets, yet President Reagan was anti-capitalism. Not a single antitrust law was repealed or amended under his watch. In 1985, more than a dozen executives from electrical contracting firms were jailed for antitrust violations.

Free competition enforced by law is a contradiction. Under the Antitrust laws, no matter what a businessman does, he becomes a criminal. If he charges prices deemed too high, he is guilty of monopoly or the ‘intent to monopolize’; if he charges prices lower than those of his competitors, he is guilty of ‘unfair competition’ or ‘restraint of trade’; and if he charges the same prices as his competitors, they are all guilty of ‘collusion’ or ‘conspiracy.’

Full disclosure and insider trading laws allow intervention by force into the very process of gaining and using knowledge. Intellectual egalitarianism, the belief that the minds and the knowledge of all men must be equalized, is their root premise.

John Shad, SEC chairman in the Reagan Administration, initiated the explosive growth of insider trading prosecutions in 1981. He said about defining unfair use: “Once you get one, it doesn’t take sophisticated minds long to figure out where the edges are.”

Laws without edges are tyrannical. A conscious effort to avoid defining unfair use, rendering the most honest bankers and investors vulnerable to prosecution and persecution, is evil. President Reagan sanctioned this evil.

Politics defines the principles of how man should treat other men. Political freedom is an individual’s freedom from physical compulsion, coercion, or interference by the government. The government holds a monopoly on the use of force. Injecting private matters, e.g. family values, into the realm of coercive power is rights-infringement.

Advocates of a law declaring that a human zygote is an actual human being are theocrats, the moral descendants of Galileo’s persecutors. Using a zygote to justify imposing a tortured life on a girl/woman and the child she would bear is akin to decreeing “The sun revolves around the Earth” as scientific fact.

Theocrats spurn God’s greatest gift: reason. Instead of using reason and persuasion to advance their values, they advocate using coercion.

It is logical that anti-capitalists, like President Reagan, would insidiously pave the way towards theocracy.

When asked to be king, George Washington responded: “Abhorrent!” He rejected power. Power-lust is for little men.

For over a century now, kings in the three branches of government puff up with power. They crave to boss citizens around, infringing the individual's right to be the boss of himself and his business. Taxpayers are under a bipartisan dictatorship.

To “do good by force” is a power-luster’s subterfuge. People motivated by the desire to do good yet advocate coercion are frauds – they are motivated by power-lust and envy. Loathe to admit even to themselves that they survive by looting, the enemies of producers invent causes to "do good". Rights-infringement is unacceptable regardless of the motivation.

The Democratic and Republican Parties claim to champion the people’s welfare. Touting platforms that are in the public interest, they have a common way of implementing them: by force. The advocacy or sanction of coercion is the mark of evil.

President Ronald Reagan was a staunch supporter of Antitrust and Insider Trading laws. Those who evade that these are tyrannical laws are on the side of freedom destroyers.

Many Reagan admirers are moral descendants of Galileo's persecutors. Reaganites evade that an embryo has no brain activity, the criterion used to declare that a person is no longer alive. They blank out that it takes cruelty to impose a tortured life on a mother and her baby, and that giving one's baby up for adoption is 24/7 torture for life.

In socialism: looters and moochers are kings, and babysitting adults by force is the law. But theocracy is the worst scourge of mankind. A theocrat would burn a Galileo at the stake; whereas, a socialist would let him live, hoping that he would sacrifice for society.

Uncommon citizens: let us elect Jeffersonians in words and in deed. They do not hold contradictions.

Ayn said that what one needs for nonfiction writing is what is needed for life in general: an orderly method of thinking. Writing, she said, is literally only the skill of putting down on paper a clear thought, in clear terms.

She discussed subject and theme, creating an outline, writing the draft, floating abstractions, editing, style, book reviews and introductions, writing a book, selecting a title, and acquiring ideas for writing.

She contrasted an active psycho-epistemology (i.e. method of thinking) with a conforming one. She discussed the only way to learn, the only way to be independent. She stressed independent thinking and principles.

Excerpt from the book jacket: "Candide is relentless in its attacks upon corruption and hypocrisy - in religion, government, philosophy, science, and even romance.”

Kudos to Voltaire for writing about a great subject and for his courage in exposing unreason. But I give it three stars out of five because of the following:

1. I do not appreciate ridicule that does not include an alternative to what's derided. Candide’s “we must cultivate our garden” is a resolution without a foundation - the stated purpose is vacuous.

At the end of the story, Candide resolves to work to avoid boredom, vice, and want. This has nothing to do with what the book ridicules: slavery, thuggery, wars, or unreason. It blanks out the use of the mind in one’s work.

2. Unlike his purposeful resolve to be reunited with Cunegonde, Candide’s globe-trotting is driftwood-like. What happens when they are reunited is not romantic nor Romantic.

3. In Candide, Voltaire used the emotion-oriented literary style: he asserted rather than showed.

4. Voltaire showed no hows nor whys in his El Dorado (Golden City). It is perfect. Period. The basis for the wealth and peaceful existence is not depicted. The place has a king which means the citizens have a boss.

Gold and gem stones are considered worthless. The place uses money as a medium of exchange but the standard of value is not mentioned.

Dr. Benjamin Franklin is the embodiment of Thomas Edison’s “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” He came from a poor family. His sensible father was of good character. Dr. Franklin was a deist. What God has given man, he purposefully, methodically, and continually used to improve himself. A self-driven independent thinker, he endeavored to improve, not only mentally and financially, but morally. He did it for his own sake, and the fruits became the glory of mankind.

Dr. Franklin resolved to practice virtues every moment. He said he was not so successful in some, e.g. Order, but his ambitious efforts did him well. Some in the list, e.g. humility, were purposed to conquer his natural inclinations. It is clear from his depictions of his practice of humility that he did not mean self-abasement nor self-negation – he practiced diplomacy. He said about humility:

“I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal about the appearance of it… In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it perhaps, often in this history; for even if I conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should be probably proud of my humility.”

A benevolent man of great honor, Dr. Franklin had no mean bone in his body. He used reason and persuasion to advance his convictions. His integrity earned the respect and trust of his fellowmen. It is logical that he could not subdue his pride – because, as Ayn Rand said, “pride is the sum of all virtues” (see here). Dr. Franklin earned the virtue of pride.

He depicted errors that he regretted. He had the misfortune of losing a four-year-old son to smallpox.

I found page 63 very interesting. I dearly enjoyed reading Dr. Franklin’s words. I laughed heartily at this part: a great gun is certainly a fire engine.

I read the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson in February, 2009. I dearly worship Mr. Jefferson. It is exceptionally wonderful to read his own words about his life. As I expected, he treasured his privacy - he said very little about his private life. He lovingly spoke of his wife in one sentence - he said he lived with her in "unchequered happiness".

"I served with General Washington in the legislature of Virginia, before the revolution, and, during it, with Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point, which was to decide the question. They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves."

"Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread."

In 1769, chosen for the first time to be a member of a legislature, he "made one effort in that body for the permission of the emancipation of slaves, which was rejected..."

Any act that does not pick my pocket nor break my leg is none of my business and none of the government’s.

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.” - Thomas Jefferson

Miss California Carrie Prejean has been disparaged because she favors traditional marriage, a legal union of a man and a woman. She is appreciated by opponents of same-sex unions.

Opponents of same-sex unions are theocrats or collectivists. They spurn self-ownership.

Theocrats advocate that one’s life belongs to God. They crave to impose in God’s name, in contradiction to God’s creation: free will. Collectivists advocate that one’s life belongs to society. They deem that man exists by permission, not by right, that he exists to serve the public, and that he must conform to the majority’s mores.

Advocates of same-sex unions who want to enforce acceptance are of the ilk of theocrats and collectivists.

I respect the freedom of theocrats and collectivists to speak out against same-sex unions. Their beliefs neither pick my pocket nor break my leg. I hope these citizens will never be voted into the seat of coercive power.

To advocates of same-sex unions who respect rights: think of Patrick Henry. A man of moral certainty, he dismissed evil:

The throwing-shoes incident in the presidential press conference in Iraq shows contempt for freedom. The gleeful outpouring of support for the profound hatred of freedom and benevolence must never be forgotten when the USA sends her troops to harm’s way or when she allocates taxpayer money.

Cultures that revel in the malevolence of flying shoes are not worth risking the life of a single American soldier. They do not deserve one taxpayer dollar. Neither the cowards in these cultures deserve freedom or benevolence.

The shoe thrower and his supporters are cockroaches objecting to skyscrapers.

Friday, October 9, 2009

President Obama said that government deficit spending stimulates the economy. This is the dishonest version of ‘spread extorted wealth around’. Deficit spending is wealth confiscation, wealth created by productive slaves. Much, if not all, will be borne by yet-to-be-born producers. Right to life includes the freedom to not be burdened with other people’s debts or costs of living. Mr. Obama is no respecter of rights.

“It is absolutely true that we can't depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth," President Obama said. "But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life. It is only government that can break the vicious cycle where lost jobs lead to people spending less money which leads to even more layoffs."

Only the government has the power to coerce. Mr. Obama’s solution to the ailing economy is: more coercive power – more enslavement.

Tragically, the alternative offered by the Republican Party, a staunch advocate of oppressive laws like antitrust and insider trading, is a path towards theocracy.

Recessions are caused by serfdom. The cure is freedom. Dr. Benjamin Franklin observed:

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need for masters.”

The solution to the devastating loss of jobs is capitalism. Unleash job creators!

It is devastating when a breadwinner loses his job, or when there are no jobs for jobseekers. Yet, politicians, judges, the media, and voters unremittingly bash job-creators, i.e. businessmen.

The most prolific job-eradicator is the government. The destruction of jobs and their creators is due to serfdom made possible by unreason, envy, power-lust, and the criminalization of the value enshrined in the Declaration of Independence: the freedom of action in the pursuit of individual self-interests.

For more than a century, businessmen have been slaves. Power-lusters, looters, and moochers have rendered them fair game to every vilification, extortion, and rights-infringement by dishonestly portraying them as callous evil crooks.

Job-creators are widely denounced as exploiters of consumers, employees, investors, competitors, and the public. It is dishonestly blanked out that businessmen with no political pull cannot impose their products or services on anyone. Only the government has the power to coerce.

Job-creators are widely denounced as materialistic and greedy. It is irrationally evaded that they must earn profits in order to survive, that big profits mean more jobs. In a government where extortion has been legalized, big profits also mean more money in the coffers of the kings: i.e. congressmen, senators, and the president, as well as the royalty: i.e. recipients of coercive-favor or coercive-welfare.

The only savior of jobs and their creators is freedom. Unleash the job creators!

But power-lusters, looters, and moochers will not relinquish their coercive power over businessmen. Although many job-creators have gone out of business or have been jailed and banned from creating more jobs, e.g. Mr. Mike Milken - the creator of 62 million jobs, the job-eradicators irrationally believe there will always be job-creators to bash.

If you cherish jobs and freedom:

o Champion reason
o Advocate capitalism: the complete separation of state and economics
o Free businessmen
o Value people who do not want the unearned
o Do not confuse capitalists with political entrepreneurs. Capitalists do not want the government to coerce anyone in their behalf. Political entrepreneurs loot through corrupt politicians.

Support for serfdom leading to job-eradication is hugely bipartisan. Democrats are for socialism and the Republican Party is not for capitalism.

Republicans staunchly support tyrannizing job-creators with regulations like antitrust and insider trading. The Republican Party is not for freedom: it is not pro-choice, the cornerstone of liberty. It dishonestly describes itself as pro-life. Inasmuch as the Republican Party blanks out the life of the pregnant human being, since it champions destroying the life of an actual human being, most of the time: a young girl, and because it advocates force – it advocates forcing a female human being to go through a lifetime paying for a mistake - the Republican Party is certainly not pro-life. It is paving the way towards the worst scourge of mankind: theocracy.

A corrupt government has favors to sell. Unwilling to relinquish this goldmine, it cannot grasp that what rights-respecting producers and consumers do is none of the government’s business, that the rights-respecting market must be absolutely free for the economy to survive. Freedom categorically ends lobbying and favor-seeking because it ends the politicians’ power to offer extorted property and their own souls for sale in the name of the poor and the middle class and in the interest of the public. Serfdom is not in the interest of rights-respecting people.

Serfdom, e.g. businessmen-bashing, neutron-bombs jobs. The honest prescription to the loss of millions of jobs is freedom.

President-elect Barack Obama referred to President Abraham Lincoln in his first speech on the day he was elected President of the United States of America. He mentioned self-reliance and individual liberty.

These are President Lincoln’s wise words:

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny.”

Aside from using the same word but not meaning the same thing, one could also hold contradictory values. But contradictions are impossible. Either one is for liberty or for tyranny.

I hope President-elect Obama is for self-reliance and individual liberty. If he is, he must check all his premises so that he will not champion contradictory policies. Based on his campaign declarations, he has many principles incompatible with self-reliance and individual liberty. I hope that as president, he will not espouse contradictions.

Logic is non-contradictory identification within the full context of one’s knowledge.

One who utters “unbridled greed” is maliciously envious. A politician, like Senator John McCain or Senator Barack Obama, uses this term to cover his unbridled greed for the power to coerce.

Governments’ sole justification for being is explicitly stated in the Declaration of Independence: to secure individual rights. The principle of equal inherent inalienable Rights is: as long as a man does not infringe the equal rights of others, anything goes - he is free to determine and pursue his own happiness - he is free to be selfish. The rich, the middle-class, and the poor have equal rights. Politicians and citizens who demonize the rich are no respecters of Individual Liberty.

Thomas Jefferson said:

“Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments.”

To remove the use of force from citizen interactions so that individuals may deal with each other only by reason and persuasion, citizens delegate their right to self-defense to their government. Citizens cannot delegate a right they do not possess – hence, the government does not have the right to regulate inherent inalienable Rights, including the rights of individuals who hold that selfishness is a virtue.

George Washington said,

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

There is bipartisan dedication in Congress and in the presidential candidates to criminalize Individual Liberty. To do this, politicians lust to outlaw selfishness. They hurl “unbridled greed”, not at themselves, their protégés, nor the administrators of their government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but at wealth and job creators.

Neither the rich nor the selfish have the power to coerce. Only the government has the power to use force. When the government enters the realm of production and trade, it dishonors its noble mandate – it becomes a tyrant. Politicians who hurl “unbridled greed” at citizens are cannibals. They corrupt the government’s noble mandate to secure individual rights.

Monday, October 5, 2009

I cherish the principle of equal inherent inalienable rights because it adheres to my personal philosophy: I want to be happy, but never at the expense of anyone. I earn my own happiness. I don’t want anyone to sacrifice or to be regulated for me. I greatly appreciate acts of benevolence, and I am forever grateful to innovators who carry me along to a better existence where their brilliant minds take them.

It is in my own self-interest that active minds flourish. They can flourish only in freedom.

The response of power-lusters to great achievement is not admiration, but a desire to destroy or control. They succeed because many citizens evade that regulation is a form of slavery, and that their approval or silence is an endorsement of serfdom.

Regulations are used by politicians, their protégés, and constituents to lord it over wealth creators. As President George Washington would say, such tyranny and these tyrants are abhorrent.

Neither Senator Barack Obama nor Senator John McCain is an advocate of freedom. It is logical that they are both anti-capitalism. Senator Obama plans to spread the wealth around while Senator McCain’s hero is President Theodore Roosevelt, a dedicated antitrust enforcer who, by endorsing income tax and an inheritance tax in 1908, became the first President of the United States to openly propose that the political power of government be used to redistribute wealth.

Alan Greenspan says in his essay entitled Antitrust:

"No one will ever know what new products, processes, machines, and cost-saving mergers failed to come into existence, killed by the Sherman Act before they were born. No one can ever compute the price that all of us have paid for that Act which, by inducing less effective use of capital, has kept our standard of living lower than would otherwise have been possible."

The following is from Mike Milken, a brilliant innovator who created millions of jobs, and consequently, tyrannized by power-lusters:

“In 1993, a new government health-plan proposal would have led to sweeping changes in the pharmaceutical industry, including what some feared would be regulation of rates of return on investments. This would have had a major impact on an industry in which it can take 14 years to bring a new drug to market. The ten largest companies in the industry lost a staggering $70 billion in market capitalization in only 14 months because of the mere possibility of regulated rates of return. Tragically, but logically, pharmaceutical companies responded by cutting research-and-development budgets in a necessary realignment of risk and return. While we'll never be able to measure what medical breakthroughs may have been lost or delayed, one thing is certain: corporate managements can never afford to ignore regulatory developments.

In the late 1980s, Congress passed the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), which typified a brief period of over-regulation that targeted insurance companies, bondholders, banks and other lenders. Well-meaning but ill-advised, FIRREA banned investments by savings and loan institutions in non-investment-grade companies and forced the S&Ls to sell existing loans that had been made to these enterprises — the very companies that create all the new jobs in America. (Over the last 30 years, more than 100 percent of jobs created in the U.S. have come from small and medium-sized companies that don't qualify for an "investment-grade" credit rating. During the same period, the 800 or so investment-grade companies have actually shed a net four million workers while smaller companies created 62 million jobs.) At the time, there was only a handful of investment-grade companies headed or controlled by African Americans, Hispanics, women or unions.

Thus, as recently as the late 20th century, the Congress of the United States effectively, albeit unknowingly, said it was illegal to provide capital to businesses headed by minorities and women or to any company that would create jobs. It was OK to make a mortgage loan that would build a building; but you couldn't finance the company that provided jobs for the people inside the building. That's why I called FIRREA and similar regulatory acts "neutron legislation" - like a neutron bomb, they left buildings standing but eliminated the people, or at least their jobs. Because only a handful of our 50 states have more than a few dozen "investment-grade" companies (some states have no such companies), Congress effectively redlined most regions of the country, reducing asset values and employment.”

Serfdom has bipartisan support in Congress, and we will soon have a president of like mind.

I hope citizens of mettle will rise to defend freedom -- that the nation conceived in Liberty shall not perish from the Earth.

The choice in the Land of the Free has become: toward-socialism or toward-theocracy.

Socialism is a lesser evil. Thus, I hope the Republican Party will be demolished in November, and then a party for Individual Liberty will rise to clobber the Democratic Party.

Since every American is free to be a religionist, deist, atheist, or agnostic, there is no justification for injecting religion in a political party to achieve religious freedom. Thus, an organized religion that pursues a political agenda lusts for the power to use force to impose its beliefs.

Theocrats have hijacked the Republican Party.

Man, by nature, is fallible and not omniscient. Teenagers could make mistakes and get pregnant. The Republican Party holds that such youngsters have no window to change course, and must go through a lifetime paying for a mistake. The party holds itself as an advocate of life, yet champions forcing a woman, or even a girl, to suffer the toils of unchosen paths.

A political party that wants to impose a tortured life on a citizen is a monster. It is against happiness; hence, it is not pro-life. After imposing a no-abortion policy, it would prohibit birth control and divorce, by force. Think back – the power loom and anesthesia were denounced as sins; Galileo was convicted of heresy because he advocated that the Earth revolves around the sun.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Capitalism is rooted in the Declaration of Independence (DOI), which, in turn, is rooted in reality.... (the article is here)

I posted the following on Goodreads on October 3, 2009 (message 10 here):

1. This is the rationale for the existence of the US government: To remove the use of force from citizen interactions so that individuals may deal with each other only by reason and persuasion, citizens delegate their right to self-defense to their government.

2. The USA's fundamentals:

----the individual's life belongs to him (individual rights)

---- the government’s only function is to ensure every individual’s freedom

3. A right is that which can be exercised without anyone's permission. Rights are rights to action, not to man-made values.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — …"

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." - Thomas Jefferson

4. The entity that has a monopoly on coercive power must not intervene in any other realm (e.g. moral & intellectual (e.g. production & trade)) because this defeats the purpose of the self-defense delegation:

---- it injects the use of force into interactions, and only one party has the legal power of "Do what you're ordered to do, or else": the government

---- the rights-protector must, at all times, be an impartial referee; thus it cannot be a player and a referee at the same time

5. The principle of individual rights mandates the:

---- separation of church and state
---- separation of state and economics
---- separation of state and education
---- separation of state and science
---- separation of state and arts
---- ...

6. What independent equals delegate to their government is their right to self-defense - this means that the government has no right to interfere in the intellectual and moral life of its citizens. It is not the government's function to protect a citizen from himself or from nature.

The Declaration of Independence mandates absolute freedom in all realms not involving the use of force delegated to prevent, counteract, defeat, and punish fraud and the initiation of force.

The Police Force and Criminal Courts prevent rights-infringers from defrauding, robbing, or physically harming citizens; they apprehend and prosecute rights-infringers; the Civil Courts resolve civil disputes; the Armed Forces prevent, repel, and defeat foreign aggression. Government functions other than these subvert the Declaration of Independence because they involve using force against innocent citizens.

Men are independent equals with inalienable rights to pursue happiness. Having no slaves, each man is responsible for sustaining his own life. The government has no right to extort in order to provide goods or services for its citizens’ sustenance. The government has no right to infringe the inalienable rights of citizens who do not attempt to defraud, rob, or physically harm other people.

7. Citizens cannot delegate a right they do not possess – hence, the government has no right to regulate inherent inalienable Rights, including the rights of individuals who hold that selfishness is a virtue.

Wealth has to be created or earned. If an individual does not share his creations or earnings, he is not infringing anyone's rights. No one has a right to one's property except the owner. A law mandating its disposition is a stick-up. A government could call it taxation, regulation, or nationalization, but any honest man recognizes its nature: it is legalized armed robbery. Honesty shines light on the fact that as it is a crime for an individual to rob or loot, it is a crime for a government to expropriate the property of any of its citizens.

One who declares for a cause higher than the individual cannot claim to be a defender of individual liberty.

Individualism regards every man as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses inalienable rights. An individualist respects individual liberty — his own and that of others. Independent equals must choose: self-reliance or dependence. Self-reliance requires selfishness. Dependence breeds moochers, looters, and rulers.

Men who glorify servility need serfs to provide their sustenance. They are not satisfied with benevolence; they demand sacrifice – the renunciation or destruction of the precious. They damn selfishness as evil, and preach masochism and sadism in the name of service and sacrifice.

Selfless means no self: no self-esteem, no self-respect, no self-love. One who is not self-reliant, a moocher or a looter, is selfless. He does not use his own mind. Having no self-respect, he needs others – for approval, guidance, and/or sustenance. One who babysits adults dishonors independence, and derives self-esteem from others. A criminal is selfless - he recklessly risks his life and freedom for his need of victims. A power-luster tramples on individual liberty and derives satisfaction from enslaving others – he is not an individualist; he is not selfish.

Those who fear self-reliance, i.e. selfishness, demonize individualism - they advocate service and sacrifice. Since President Abraham Lincoln and his heroes had eradicated serfdom, citizens are conned into thinking that voluntary self-immolation is noble. Men conned into regarding selfishness as evil evade that it is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. They unwittingly facilitate power-lusters who recognize that man’s love of self must be destroyed so rulers could thrive.

To value is a function of the self – it is selfish to care for loved ones; their well-being or happiness is not divorced from the valuer’s. That good people live and prosper is in one’s own self-interest – one benefits from the advantages of social existence: exchange of knowledge, trade, division of labor, and defense from force – one wants to live in freedom and in peace – therefore, to cherish a society that respects individual rights is selfish.

The virtue involved in caring for loved ones and doing the right thing is integrity: you love, so you care; you think it is right, so you do it.

Individualists do not need sacrificial lambs. Men with self-esteem, i.e. selfish men, take pride in independence. One cannot achieve happiness without self-esteem. Without self-respect, life is not worth living. This explains why men of integrity do the right thing no matter the cost. No matter how difficult, they cannot do otherwise - they cannot sacrifice their self-respect. Doing the right thing is not sacrifice – it is upholding the precious, not renouncing or destroying it – this explains why President Lincoln did not utter service or sacrifice in his Gettysburg Address.

Patrick Henry immortalized selfishness when he said, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

President George Washington protected and preserved individual liberty when he rejected a movement to make him King of the United States, calling it "abhorrent", and when he refused to run for a third term. He evinced an enormous respect for himself and his fellowmen. He personified integrity.

President Thomas Jefferson said, "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."

Those who damn selfishness denounce the desire to live happily. Those who need slaves damn selfishness because people who value themselves cannot be ruled. Men who love themselves but facilitate these damners are cowards.

You who defend selfishness honor its advocates: President George Washington, the Founding Fathers, President Abraham Lincoln, and brave individuals who struggled or are struggling that the nation conceived in Liberty might live.

Those who declare for self-renunciation or self-destruction are unfit protectors of individual liberty. They should be voted out from the government of the people, by the people, for the people –

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Best premises and good fortune!

Reason Reigns and Royal Serf - A Hearing

“It’s not criminals who provoke great hatred, it’s honest men.” The words of a polymath and polyglot executed by tyrants at age 35: Dr. Jose Rizal.

Honesty is fidelity to the truth. The truth is what conforms to reality. Integrity is fidelity to logic. It is the refusal to hold contradictions; it is the consistent cohesion of words and deeds; it is honoring one’s mental creations by giving them physical existence.

I hold that the honest would accord my novels, Reason Reigns and Royal Serf, a hearing. I expect hatred from the moral descendants of the executioners of Dr. Rizal and the persecutors of Galileo, and from the enemies of the principle of individual liberty. They destroy rather than stand the test of truth and reason.

Reason Reigns extols independent thinkers, and Royal Serf honors the Declaration of Independence. These novels proclaim that the right to the pursuit of happiness is the right to selfishness.

Royal Serf’s Apollo says: “One not concerned with oneself has no desire to live. The concept of one’s concern for oneself, represented by the word selfishness, has been twisted to mean malevolence towards others. Those who desire to live but accept the twisted meaning of selfishness unwittingly facilitate insidious destroyers. Unable to rule nor influence individuals who accept no guilt in their desire to live and pursue happiness, destroyers demonize their core by associating callousness and malevolence with selfishness.”

Apollo responds to this request from an interviewer: “Use major swindler Bernard Madoff to contrast a selfish man with a selfless man.” -

“The basic selfishness criteria are self-preservation and self-reliance followed by self-love and self-respect. Bernard Madoff is not self-reliant. A dependent, he fed off his victims. Unmindful of losing his liberty, he committed massive fraud. Self-preservation is clearly absent – Madoff does not value himself. He fails even the basic selfishness test. Madoff is selfless.”

Selfless means no self: no self-esteem, no self-respect, no self-love.

The sixteenth amendment, a stick-up of hard-earned wages, tramples on the Declaration of Independence and incinerates property rights. The Antitrust Law spits on logic, puffing up that free competition must be enforced! Undefined, flexible, contradictory laws are hailed. Sacrifice is the Holy Grail. Selfishness is trumpeted as having horns, a pointed tail, and a pitchfork.

Honesty demands that one’s soul be put on trial: The advocacy or sanction of coercion is the mark of evil. Integrity must be summoned to reclaim the Declaration of Independence from the clutches of sacrifice glorifiers.